Easy for You to Say

"May I sit with you?"

"Of course you may, but try not to look surprised when I ask you why you are here instead of over at Brad's table."

"Brad and I have parted ways. He was getting way too possessive. When he told me that he didn't want me around you I cut him loose. So where are we going on our first date?"

"What?"

"Simple question. Should be easy for you to answer."

"I don't understand what's going on here."

"It is obvious to me after talking with Alice that you had given up on asking me, so I'm asking you. I am assuming of course that you would like to spend some time with little ol' me."

I might have been a bit stunned, but I wasn't dumb so I said, "Of course I would like to spend some time with you, but it won't be until after the Parker game on Friday. Given everything that-s going on between me and Brad, if he saw me dating you before the game he might lose it and come after me. I don't want to chance it. We need him for the game.'

"Win or lose there will be a party somewhere after the game. How about we go together?"

"Not a good idea. If we win everybody will be up, and if Brad was there if would be highly likely that he would do something stupid and it could ruin the mood for everyone. If we lose everyone will be down, and we wouldn't want to make things worse. How about we do it on Saturday?"

"That will work for me. What will we do?"

"Think on it and let me know what you want to do."

Just then the bell rang saying lunch period was over, so we got up and went to class.

*****

Brad stayed clear of me in practice and the locker room and Connie stayed away from me in school, but we got together at home after school. For our Saturday date she decided on the double feature at the Martha Washington, followed by milkshakes at Harry's Malt Shoppe.

Friday came and the game with Parker was a see-saw affair. We scored and then they scored. We scored and then they scored. We scored and then they scored and then we fumbled and gave them the ball on our fifty yard line. They got the ball to our forty-three yard line and then things got weird for me. It was like I was getting to relive my past.

He slipped or was distracted or something, because I should never have been able to get by him that easy. The quarterback was dropping back and looking to his left as I hit him. The ball came loose and I was falling to cover it, but got hit and pushed out of position and the Parker halfback recovered the ball. The ball was on their forty-nine with a minute and forty-five on the clock and they decided to go for the field goal. It missed by inches. We got the ball back with a minute and eleven on the clock and Brad moved the ball down the field in three pays and then ran the ball in on a quarterback sneak to give us the win.

The party that night was at Eddie's. I danced with every girl there including one with Connie. Brad was there, but Connie avoided him and refused him when he asked her for a dance. He scowled and called her a bitch and was asked by Eddie to leave. Brad apologized for his behavior and left. Once he was gone, Connie didn't dance with anyone but me. Our date Saturday went well, and after several more I asked her to go steady and she said yes.

We lost to Meadow Creek in the regionals, but still felt good as it was our first time to ever make it that far. For the most part we gave as good as we got, the final score was 24-21 and it wasn't lost on me that the win over Parker that got us there was the same 24-21.

Connie and I were making out on a regular basis, and some of our make out sessions got pretty hot. When my hands started to wander I was told in no uncertain terms that Connie intended to walk down the aisle a virgin. Now that we were dating I had it my head that I was going to be the man she married, so I decided that I'd do her the honor of walking down the aisle the same.

Graduation came, and we spent the summer doing things like going to the lake, going to the amusement park, playing miniature golf and making out. One night, Connie told me she had a confession to make.

"I've known since I was fifteen that you were going to be my guy, but I didn't expect it to happen until our second or third year of college. Mom made me promise not to get serious with any one guy until I'd had a chance to look around. I knew how hooked on me you were on me. Everyone knew it, so I thought I would date others to keep my mom happy and make you the last. It was arrogant of me to assume you would be there waiting for me, but that-s the way I was. I finally got to the point where I couldn't put off wanting you anymore. Try not to hate me for playing you for so long."

"I couldn't hate you even if I tried. I am pissed over all the time lost to us; time we could have been together."

My nineteenth birthday was in August and Connie told me she had a special gift for me after the party my parents threw for me. Everyone was gone and my parents and Alice were in bed. Connie and I were laying by the pool. She tugged down my swimming trunks as she said:

"I still intend to be a virgin when I get married, but I don't consider this as giving up my virginity."

She took my cock in her hand and started licking it and then took it in her mouth and started to give me my first blowjob. I'd been beating my meat since I was fourteen, so I knew how good it felt, but in a hot mouth? I was in heaven. All too soon she had me ready to come and being new to this I didn't know if I was to stop her before coming or not. I decided to play it safe and tell Connie I was close to spewing. She ignored me and kept going. I shot and her head jerked up, but then went right back down. She kept me in her mouth until I was soft and then let it go. She used her towel to wipe a bit of my sperm off her lips and then I heard her say for the first time, "I love you."

That caught me by surprise and it took me a second or two before I said "I love you, too. Always have and always will."

"Did you like it?"

"I loved it."

"Debbie said you would. She showed me how to do it using a banana."

Debbie Thomas was the class punchboard. I'd often thought of giving Debbie a try, but my dad had given me the "birds and bees" speech, and one of the things he covered-stressed actually-was how easy it was to catch a venereal disease from a promiscuous woman, and so I had given Debbie a pass. You have any idea how hard that was to do from a young hormone ridden guy who was still a virgin?

"Debbie also explained to me how I should have my pussy eaten. Would you like to return the favor?"

The thought that instantly crossed my mind was "How can she expect me to do that? She pees from that hole," but that thought quickly followed by "Don't be an ass, Rob; she just did you where you pee." Next was the thought that I finally had her after years of wanting, and I'd better to do my absolute best to hang on to her. I covered up my hesitation by saying:

"Why? It isn't your birthday."

"As I recall you didn't give me a present on my eighteenth birthday. You can consider it as a belated present."

"I've never done it."

"I haven't either, but I'll lead you through it the way Debbie taught me."

She did, and I must have caught on fast because it wasn't too long before she arched her back, grabbed my head and moaned "Sweet Jesus; don't stop. Don't ever stop." She spasmed (later I learned it was an orgasm), and when she settled down, she said, "We have to do more of this."

"I'm willing. Just tell me when."

She did, and we did it frequently during the summer.

*****

One month before we were to start college, I asked her to marry me. She said yes and I slid the ring onto her finger. She didn't want a big wedding, but both sets of parents insisted. Both moms started to plan and they were talking of a wedding around the middle of October.

It was three days before school was supposed to start. I called Connie and told her I needed to see her. She came over and found me sitting on the living room couch with a blank expression on my face.

"What's wrong, Robbie?"

I held up a piece of paper and said "I got this in the mail today."

"What is it?"

I unfolded the piece of paper and read aloud "The President of the United States to Robert Allen Denton. Greetings. You are hereby ordered to report for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States of America."

"When do you have to go?"

"Says here the twenty-eighth of September."

"We have to get the moms to move the wedding to before you have to go."

"I don't know if they can."

"We won't know until we ask."

It didn't matter what the moms could or couldn't do. Both dads stepped in and said we could not do it. Their reasoning was brutally simple. There was a war raging in Korea, and it was more than likely where I was going to end up being sent.

"There is no sense in getting married, living together for a couple of weeks and then going off to the war where-God forbid-you could get killed and leave Connie a widow. Do your two years and then come home and get married. I saw the logic in that, but of course Connie didn't. She felt that if something happened to me she would have at least some time with me. I then did the hardest thing I'd done in my life up to that point. I told her I had to side with the dads. She was upset and cried for days. Every time we got together she ended up breaking out in tears.

School started and she defied her parents and refused to sign up for classes.

"I've only got Rob for two more weeks, and I'm spending all my time with him. I'll start school the next term."

The day before I left I had to make the second hardest decision of my young life. We had gone to the movies and followed it up to a visit to Harry's Malt Shop. When we left Harry's and got in my car Connie said:

"I don't want to go home. Find us a motel."

"What?"

"You heard me. Find us a motel. I'm not going to wait until we get married. You are the man I'm going to walk down the aisle to, and you were going to get my virginity that night. Since you are going to get it anyway I decided to give it to you now."

"No."

"What do you mean no?"

"I mean no I won't take you to a motel. I know how much it meant to you to walk down the aisle as a virgin, and as much as it kills me to do it I won't take that dream away from you. We have managed to wait for a little over a year, so we can wait until I come home from the service. If we are meant to be it will happen. If not, you owe it to yourself and whoever you end up with to walk down the aisle pure."

She started crying as I drove us home and once there she got out of the car and ran across the lawn to her house. She didn't even come to see me leave the next day. It took two days to go through the induction process, which consisted of several physicals and an ungodly number of tests, after which I was given two days to go home and settle my affairs. I tried calling Connie several times over those two days, but she wouldn't take my calls.

Two days later I was at Fort Knox, Kentucky, for basic training. I called home and Dad answered. I gave him my military address in case he, Mom or Alice wanted to write me. No mention of Connie occurred during the call.

*****

I was in the second week of the training cycle when I got my first letter from home. It was a tear stained letter from Connie. She said I'd hurt her terribly by refusing her, but that was no excuse for her actions. She begged for my forgiveness, told me she loved me and I was in her prayers. I wrote her back and told her I loved her and that she would be my reason for making sure I would come home safe. After that, I received a letter or two a week from her.

When the eight week basic course was over I was sent to Ft. Lee, Virginia, for training as a supply handler. When I left Ft. Lee I was given a ten day delay in route and I used it to go home. I-d called ahead and let them know I was coming and when I got off the bus I found Connie waiting for me. She ran up to me, hugged and kissed me, and wouldn-t let go.

I finally pried myself loose and told we had eight days to hold each other. Of course, that wasn-t entirely true as I did have to spend some time with my family, but she was considered family so she would be there, also. We did get to spend quite a bit of time alone, and we did engage in a lot of oral sex. The leave was still all too short, and there was a tearful farewell when I had to leave for Ft. Lewis, Washington, which is where I would spend a week or so before being shipped to Korea. I told a crying Connie not to worry.

"I'm in the Quartermasters. I'll be in the rear area shipping supplies up to the troops. I won't be where I can be shot at."

Shows how stupid I was.

*****

I was sending supplies to the front lines, but I had not been expecting that I would also be taking those supplies to the lines.

The supplies came in to Pusan, and it was the Quartermaster guys who broke down the incoming into smaller packages, loaded them on the trucks and then drove those trucks to the front. Korea is fairly mountainous and hilly, and those mountains and hills hid North Korean and Chinese whose purpose in life was to shoot up the convoys that made the run from Pusan to the front.

We usually traveled in convoys of eight to twelve trucks and two or three Jeeps with pedestal mounted fifty caliber machine guns. There were two guys to a truck and we were all armed. I had a Garand M-1 rifle and a 1911 A1 forty-five caliber pistol. The trucks had holes in the roof and ring mounted thirty caliber machine guns. There were fifty-one guys at the depot. and we rotated the job so I only made the run about once every two weeks. We always-always-took fire on the run, and the thirty's and fifty's did a good job of making the bad guys keep their heads down, but we still had casualties from time to time. I was on my fourth run when I got my first Purple Heart. It wasn't anything serious. A bullet came through the windshield and grazed my shoulder. It hurt like hell but didn't do any damage.

My letters home only told everyone that I worked in a supply depot far away from the front. I received a letter a week from Connie telling me about school and our high school classmates who were also in school with her. She professed her undying love and told me that she was impatiently awaiting my return.

I'd been in Korea a little over seven months when I got a letter from Alice. She and Connie had a falling out over something and Alice no longer just accepted what Connie did and tried to explain it away. She told me that Connie was dating and she felt that I needed to know. Why she felt I needed to know I couldn't figure out. Not knowing wouldn't have put me in the funk I was in after I knew. I had two days of thinking bad thoughts about Connie and calling her all sorts of derogatory things. On the third day, I got my weekly letter from Connie and I almost tossed it without reading it. I just did not want to read her telling me of her undying love and how she was waiting for my return. I remembered my words from way back when she told me that like my father, she believed in serving my country if called. "Easy for you to say. You'll be home dating and having fun while I'm getting shot at." Now it was happening. I finally decided to read her letter so I could send her a scathing response. What I got was not what I expected.

"My dearest Rob,

As you read this know that you are in my heart and always will be. I'm going through a difficult time right now, and I'm seeing other guys. Please, please, please do not take this as a Dear John letter. I am yours and I always will be. The problem is, I am going stir-crazy just sitting at home and doing nothing except homework. So I started dating. They are NOT taking your place. And they ARE NOT getting from me what you got from me. Please understand, my love. It just isn't natural for a young girl to sit at home doing nothing. I tried doing things by myself, but I stuck out like a sore thumb when I went places alone. Again, YOU ARE NOT BEING REPLACED. I love you and I WILL be here waiting for you when you come home. Please, please understand.

With all my love,

Connie."

I was pissed. I was royally pissed. I crumpled up the letter and tossed it in the trash can. Did I believe it? Not for a minute. As long as she was dating, she was being untrue to me. As long as she was dating, there was the chance she would meet someone she would fall for. I wasn't there! I couldn't compete. Shit like that filled my head for a couple of days before I calmed down enough to consider my response. During that time, I came to accept she had a point. It was unnatural for someone our age to sit at home, but couldn't she have done things with her girlfriends instead of dating guys? I had to accept that she was thousands of miles away and there was nothing I could do about it. Well there was one thing I could do. Write her and tell her to go to hell. I wrote several long letters telling her that but I ended up tossing them all. I settled on a short one. She did not like being called Constance, so naturally I started the letter:

"Constance,

I'm so glad that you are out having fun while I am being shot at. I do hope that you did not wear my ring while going on your dates. That would be the ultimate disrespect as far as I am concerned. Please give my ring to Alice or my parents.

Robert.

P.S. Don't bother writing to me anymore."

The fact that she had always called me Bobby or Robbie and never Robert, and that I omitted "Dear" at the beginning of the letter should get to her.

I sent the letter off never expecting to hear from her again. I was wrong. I heard back, but it was indirectly. A week later I received a letter from Alice. Connie had come to see her in a panic. She told Alice about the letter and started crying and asking Alice what she could do. She was afraid if she wrote I would throw it away without reading it. She didn't want to lose me, but she didn't know what to do and she begged Alice to help her. Alice wanted to know what Connie could do.

I wrote back and told her to tell Connie that I still didn't want to hear from her, but she could tell Connie that if she wasn't in a relationship when I got home I would see if anything could be salvaged. I asked her to keep an eye on Connie and let me know if Connie did anything that would kill off any chance Connie and I might have when I did get home.

*****

Two days later, I got shot again. Someone on the other side got their head out of their ass and realized that shooting at moving trucks wasn't likely to stop them, and in fact barely slowed them down. We came around a curve and found a road block, so it was out of the trucks, take cover and return fire except for those manning the fifties and thirties. The officer in charge, a butter bar West Pointer named Simmons, probably pissed at being assigned to the Quartermaster instead of a line unit, decided to show he should be in a fighting unit instead of Supply, gathered up a bunch of us and had us charge up the hill.

For a West Pointer, he wasn't too bright. He had already radioed in and a flight of F-86 Sabre jets was on the way. What Simmons did was put us closer to the bad guys and when the F-86's showed up and attacked, some of us were too close to the enemy. I can't say if it was the enemy or my own side that did it, but something ripped into my side and put me down on my ass. A medic travelled with us, and he got to me almost immediately. He slapped a bandage on and told me it wasn't all that bad and to hold the bandage in place tight against the wound while he went off to check on the other wounded.

They unloaded the rear truck, put us wounded in it and drove back to Pusan, where I found that whatever hit me, bullet or rock caused by the Sabre rounds impacting on the ground, only tore a chunk of flesh off me. It didn't go through my body and nothing inside me was damaged. I was actually up and back to work in three days (albeit a bit gingerly). I received a second Purple Heart and one other thing. Those of you who have been in the service won't be surprised to hear that a good many of those in charge are idiots. Simmonds was a prime example.